GANDY, JAMES (1619–1689), portrait-painter, born in 1619, was probably a native of Exeter. He is stated to have been a pupil of Vandyck, and to have acquired to some degree the style of that master. He has even been supposed to have assisted Vandyck by painting the drapery in his pictures.

In 1661 he was taken to Ireland by his patron, the Duke of Ormonde, and remained there until his death in 1689. He executed a number of copies of portraits by Vandyck for the duke's collection at Kilkenny, some of which were sold at the dispersal of that collection as original works. His principal portraits were done in Ireland, and remain there. One of the Duke of Ormonde was in the possession of the Earl of Leicester. Gandy is worthy of notice as one of the earliest native English painters. He was father of William Gandy [q. v.]

[Pilkington's Dict. of Painters, ed. 1805; Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting, ed. Dallaway and Wornum; Cotton's Life of Reynolds; Northcote's Life of Reynolds (Appendix).]